US futures are down but off session lows, with Nasdaq contracts edging higher, as America heads to the polls for the midterms, chips rebound even as Apple slides on a gross margin warning and Palantir tumbles on a soft outlook, and oil bounces off Monday's 8% plunge after the US struck Iran's Qeshm Island in what officials called a "small-scale" and "defensive" attack; as a result the oil-driven bond rally takes a breather with the 10Y yield edging up to 4.93%. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 0.1% at 7,564 while Nasdaq futures are up 0.3% and Dow futures are down 0.6% some 300 points to 51,826. On Monday the S&P reversed a 1% gain to close down 0.5% at 7,541 and the Nasdaq 100 slid 1.4% into a correction, 10% below its October 6 peak, even as the equal-weight S&P rose 0.7% and the Dow added 0.4%. In premarket trading, semis and memory names are bid again while software lags, with Shopify plunging 19% and Dynatrace 15%; Apple drops about 4%, after the stock initially traded flat in the immediate aftermath of the report as we noted last night, while Nvidia rises 1.5% (Apple closed Monday as the world's most valuable company, only narrowly ahead of Nvidia, so that title is in play). The day's driver is the vote (with Iran in the background, again): Polymarket assigns a 94% chance of a Dem House and a 78% chance of a Dem Senate, an outcome which markets fear means more AI regulation and more hurdles for the data center buildout, with the Texas governor race seen as the one to watch for the AI trade; meanwhile US-Iran headlines swing between mediator proposals and Tehran declaring it is "now in a state of war" after the Qeshm strike. Treasuries are broadly flat and outperform European bonds, which slide as oil and Dutch gas rebound and ECB speakers sound hawkish. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is up 0.1%, the Aussie lags after the RBA's split 6-3 hike was read as dovish, and the onshore yuan snapped its longest winning streak in three decades after the PBOC raised FX reserve requirements. In commodities, WTI rises 2% to about $98.45 and Brent trades above $105, gold drops 0.9% and silver slides below $50, while copper slips under $14,000; Bitcoin dipped to $76,240 before rebounding above $77,000. US economic data slate includes September JOLTS job openings, factory orders and final durable goods (all at 10am); there are no scheduled Fed speakers, and the Treasury sells $100 billion of 6-week bills at 11:30am. Polls start closing at 6pm ET.